Genevieve Barbour, 85, holds some of the signs that John Pavao… (GEORGE SKENE, ORLANDO SENTINEL )

November 21, 2010|By Anthony Colarossi, Orlando Sentinel

In an unfortunate era marked by foreclosures, short sales and evictions, thousands of distressed Central Floridians struggle every day to hold onto their homes.

Genevieve Barbour is one of them. The 85-year-old faces eviction from the Winter Park home she has lived in for about 46 years.

But the way Barbour lost her home is what makes her story unlike most any other foreclosure case. In reality, she doesn't own any part of her home today. She is barely a tenant. That's because she was swindled out of her large, tri-level on leafy Worthington Drive back in May 2007, during the real-estate boom.

This month, she testified at the sentencing of John Pavao, the head of an "equity skimming" or "equity stripping" scheme that robbed Barbour and other vulnerable seniors of homeowner values built up over decades.

A judge sent Pavao to prison for 10 years as a result. His daughter Shastine, another felon involved in the racketeering scam, received a lengthy probation sentence.

But now, a little more than three years after Barbour unwittingly signed a document used by the unscrupulous group to claim her home, lending and loan servicing institutions are working to remove the woman from the residence, according to documents mailed to her home.

Barbour has some choice words for the Pavaos, whose actions led to the home being fraudulently sold, resold and then defaulted upon.

"They're not human beings," she said last week. "It's hard to believe there's any human being in this world that could do this to people. When I think of what they did to me and what they did to other people, it's inhumane."

She asks a basic question: How can she be kicked out of a home that was sold from under her and without her knowledge — transactions that led to people being convicted of felonies?

"They proved it was fraud, it was a felony," Barbour said. "They put the guy in jail, and I still lost my home."

Judge halts proceedings

Up until recently, the property was in the name of Antone Pavao, an apparent relative of the two Pavaos who operated here. That man defaulted on the mortgage. Wachovia Bank and its parent Wells Fargo ultimately won the foreclosure case and took technical ownership of the home in a sale last month.

When told about the Barbour situation Friday, Orange Circuit Judge Stan Strickland, who oversaw part of the foreclosure matter but not the final judgment, immediately halted all proceedings in the case, including the eviction.

It should give Barbour time to get representation and sort out the legal mess, he said.

"I don't think it's written anywhere that I have to sit on my hands when I know something is wrong," Strickland said. "I'd rather err on the side of caution here and not have a woman thrown out."

Strickland's action Friday should give Barbour 60 days to get help. The state Attorney General's Office also said Friday that Barbour's case is a "priority."

"We are working on this issue from several different angles," said Sandi Copes, agency spokeswoman. "Nobody wants to see a person lose their home."

The AG's office, Copes said, is seeking legal assistance for Barbour and trying to contact the bank directly to discuss the case.

A spokeswoman for Wachovia in Miami sent a statement late Friday saying the company understands the "difficult nature" of the Barbour case.

"While Wells Fargo was not servicing this loan, we have reached out to the mortgage servicer — Specialized Loan Servicing LLC — and asked them to give this situation their full consideration," spokeswoman Christina Kolbjornsen said in the e-mail.

Legal representatives for the bank and others identified in the eviction papers Barbour has received would not speak about the case.

Barbour herself is doubtful because so far no one has stepped in to help settle the situation, which has left her in an uncertain state about her residency for more than three years.

Conflicting letters in the mail

The Pavaos did nothing less than defraud Barbour of her home equity and ownership, according to court documents in the criminal, civil and foreclosure cases involving in the Worthington Drive home.

It started in April 2007, when she received conflicting letters in the mail, one a foreclosure notice and, the other, a withdrawal of that notice. Barbour, whose husband passed away the previous year, said she was confused.

A man contacted her and told her to go see Shastine Pavao of SCJ Investments. Barbour met with the young woman in early May 2007 at a bare, Windermere office. Court records, Barbour's testimony and Barbour's statements during a recent interview indicate the elderly woman thought Shastine Pavao was offering financial assistance.

A 58-page criminal affidavit used to make the case against the Pavaos says Shastine Pavao told Barbour "that if she could help her, she would be required to pay $1,087 monthly for 18 months and then buy back her house."